Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Save Leyton Marsh Campaign

I attended a meeting on 11th July where residents of Springfield and neighbouring wards held the ODA to account about the plans to restore Leyton Marsh following the removal of the temporary basket ball court practice courts.

Save Leyton Marsh is Campaigning to restore of the land of Leyton
Marsh to a completely open access, uncommercialised and unspoilt green
field, by 15th October 2012.

They are
campaigning for all relevant authorities to sign up to a joint
legally-binding agreement to restore Leyton Marsh by October 15th to its
character as a plain and simple green open access space.

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Successful first meeting of the New Springfield Ward Forum

Residents and Councillors discussed how to improve our ward at the last nights first meeting of the Springfield Ward Forum.

There was a lot of interest in developing a community plan for the development of the dis-used toilets on Upper Clapton Road . It is anticipated that the forum will meet again in September to discuss this matter with Planners.

Saturday, 30 June 2012

I am pleased to announce that the first meeting of a new Springfield Ward Forum will take place on Monday 2nd July from 7 - 8pm at the Webb Estate Community Hall off Upper Clapton Road .

The purpose of the forum
is to improve collaboration between local Councillors and residents. It is an
opportunity for us to work together to design and deliver ways of improving the
local area.

The Springfield Ward Forum will not be a typical Council meeting and does not
seek to duplicate any of the existing work we do to address individual
problems and casework issues. Instead we think its an exciting opportunity to bring people together to make a
positive difference to the ward.

We
hope you can come along on 2nd July, meet your neighbours and share
your ideas for the things you would like to work together to achieve in
the local area.

To prompt your thinking we thought that we would share some of our initial ideas for what the Springfield Ward Forum could do:

Mapping our Ward - How much do we know about our ward? Where are the significant places and organisations? There will be a large map of Springfield at the meeting so we can share local knowledge.

Developing Springfield - How should Springfield develop in the future? How do we balance housing needs and the environment? How can community organisations work together? How can we work together to improve local buildings such as the disused toilets on Clapton Common.

Olympics and Legacy - How will the forthcoming Olympics affect us in Springfield? What will be the legacy? Do we want to develop a sport for social change movement like the one in Stoke Newington.

Telling Local Stories –
there is a wealth of information available about the history of the
local area. However, we are not aware of anything that necessarily tells
the stories of the people and families that have lived here. The forum
could establish a local network to do this by bringing people to
together, to talk and share their stories. These could then be shared
more widely - online, for example.

Local Photography
– similar to the idea above, the forum could encourage people could
share photographs of the local area over the years. People could bring
photos to meetings, share them with others, and tell the stories related
to them. Over time we could build up a visual representation of how the
area has changed, which could be shared more widely.

Skills Trading – there is a huge range of expertise in the local area. Based on Trade School London (http://www.tradeschool.coop/london/class)
the forum could encourage people to share these skills with others.
People could offer to teach a class (at a forum meeting) on something
they have specific expertise (it could be photography, art, growing
food, music, stone carving , anything, really). This would
be done for free in exchange for somebody else offering to do the same
thing, and so on and so forth.

These
are only ideas. They are intended to demonstrate that there is
significant potential for the different types of things we could do
through the forum.

Importantly the work of the forum will be guided by you, so please do come along on 2ndJuly and get involved.

If you would like to share any thoughts about the forum, please do not hesitate to email margaret.gordon@hackney.gov.uk

Will be heard by the Planning
Committee at Hackney Town Hall on Wednesday 4th July 2012 at 7.00pm

The proposal is summarised below :

Partial demolition of single storey
boathouse; rebuilding of boathouse and erection of extensions at ground and
first floor level; refurbishment to existing rowing club boathouse to
facilitate the provision of a new gym and support facilities; associated new
refuse and recycling facilities and new cycle storage; external alterations
including new windows, new balcony, new entrance, new skylights and solar
panels to roof.

Sunday, 24 June,
12.00 – 13.00 pm
HERB WALK in ROBIN HOOD GARDEN, on the former One O'Clock Club site at the
junction of Spring Lane and Big Hill (bottom of Springfield Park)
Discover the wealth of medicinal plants growing in a local Community Garden. Find
out more about the healing properties of common weeds and garden plants.
For further information please contact Medical Herbalist Elsa Hamaz on 07939
610 283.

Saturday, 30 June, 11 am - 4 pm
COMMUNITY FUN DAY with E5 ROOTS (the the new Jack Watts Food Growing Project
set up by five residents on the estate).
At the Jack Watts Community Flat, 10 Detmold Road (opposite the Southwold
School fete, happening on the same day). Free food, music, arts & crafts,
plant sale, and food growing ideas and information.For further information, contact foodgrowing_jackwatts@yahoo.co.uk, or
see www.E5roots.wordpress.com

BBC Radio 1 is holding its Hackney Big Weekend on Hackney Marshes on the 23/24 June.Headline acts will include Leona Lewis, Jack White, D'banj, Jessie J, Will.I.Am, Florence and the Machine, Tinie Tempah and Plan B.50% of tickets for this event will be allocated to Hackney residents.Hackney Big Weekend will be a great opportunity for the borough. There will be workshops at the Radio 1 Academy in Hackney, open DJ sessions, visits from top artists and DJs and 20% of food concessions within the site will go to Hackney businesses.Attendance is free for the event but a booking fee of £2.50 will be charged.There is a two-step procedure for ticket allocation - registration is NOW OPEN.Applicants must be over 16 years of age by 23 June 2012 and must first register their details online including uploading a recent photo.Once registered, applicants can then apply for tickets by phone or online starting on the 25th March.Full details including frequently asked questions are available on the Radio 1 website.Any new acts from East London interested in performing on the Introducing Stage can upload examples of their music at the BBC website.All details of this exciting East London event are available at the special BBC Hackney Weekend website.

The council are currently consulting on the future of Adult Social Care and the Public Sector Equality duty.

ConsultationHave your say on the development of our equality objectivesWe are inviting residents, service users and other stakeholders to have their say on the development of our Equality objectives. Under the Equality Act 2010, Councils are required to develop and publish Equality objectives and set out how they will measure improvement to take their commitment forward over the next 3 to 4 years. The consultation will run until 22 February 2012. Find out more and have your say on the equality objectives page.Local account: how well we deliver adult social care servicesThe government has ended Care Quality Commission annual assessments of council adult social care services. In their place we are required to publish a local account to enable residents to judge how well we are performing against our priorities for adult social care.We are inviting feedback from residents and other stakeholders on the content and format of this our first local account. The consultation runs from 20 December 2011 until 13 March 2012.Find out more and have your say on the local account consultation page.ConsultationHave your say on the development of our equality objectivesWe are inviting residents, service users and other stakeholders to have their say on the development of our Equality objectives. Under the Equality Act 2010, Councils are required to develop and publish Equality objectives and set out how they will measure improvement to take their commitment forward over the next 3 to 4 years. The consultation will run until 22 February 2012. Find out more and have your say on the equality objectives page.Local account: how well we deliver adult social care servicesThe government has ended Care Quality Commission annual assessments of council adult social care services. In their place we are required to publish a local account to enable residents to judge how well we are performing against our priorities for adult social care.We are inviting feedback from residents and other stakeholders on the content and format of this our first local account. The consultation runs from 20 December 2011 until 13 March 2012.Find out more and have your say on the local account consultation page.

Our priorities are set by your local neighbourhood panel. The panel is made upof members of your community who meet regularly with us to discuss issues ofconcern in your area and how they will be resolved. The following gives youinformation about the priorities that have been set and the actions we are takingto tackle them. If you are interested in becoming a neighbourhood panelmember please contact the safer neighbourhood team on 020 8721 2925 .

The next public meeting with the safer neighbourhood team will be held on 5th March at Leaview House Tenants Hall. 6pm to 7pm.